She feels everything. She can't not.
She's getting worse, isn't she?
JAYNE: If they don't get gone... you better start locking up your room at night. Next time lil' sister gets in a murderin' mood, might be you she comes calling on. Maybe Kaylee. Or Inara. You let 'em stay... we're gonna find out. MAL: This is my boat, and they're part of my crew. No one's getting left. Best you get used to that. -- MAL: When I took you and your sister in, the deal was you keep her in check. You can't hold up your end, we're gonna have to revisit that deal. She's getting worse, isn't she? SIMON: Yes.
I have a job for you.
WASH: So the medvault's not the job? SIMON: That's the payment. I tell you how to get in, get out, and what's worth taking. If you help me get River into the hospital's diagnostic ward. MAL: What's in the diagnostic ward? SIMON: A 3-D neuroimager. If I can get River in there, I might be able to figure out what they did to her at the Academy.
I'm startin' to like this plan.
MAL: Now all we need's a couple of patients. SIMON: Corpses, actually. For this to work, River and I will have to be dead. JAYNE: I'm startin' to like this plan.
It's time to go to sleep.
S: Captain Reynolds and the others will have to pretend that we're dead to sneak us into the hospital, but once we're inside we'll wake up and everything will be fine. You understand? R: You're going to suspend cerebral, cardiac and pulmonary activity in order to induce a proto-comatose state. S: That's right. R: I don't want to do it. I don't want to go to that place. I don't want to die. S: No one's going to die. It's okay. The others will take care of us while we're asleep and when we get back. R: No, no, no... S: Shhh... it's okay. River. River. This could be what we've been hoping for. When this is over... I'll be able to help you. I'll be able to make the nightmares go away. Okay? Okay. Lie back. It's time to go to sleep.
Where you should be.
S: This is the recovery ward. This is where patients come to get better. R: They're going to die. S: No one's going to die. R: He is. S: No, he's not. That man standing next to him is his doctor, he's going to help him. R: He's not going to help him right. S: River, the doctors here are the best in the system. This is one of the top hospitals in the Core or anywhere else. R: Where you should be.
She feels everything. She can't not.
SIMON: Tyen-sah duh UH-muo. [Goddamn monsters.] How anyone could do this to another person... she's seventeen. They opened up her skull. Look, that's a scalpel scar. They opened up her skull... and then they cut into her brain. JAYNE: Why? SIMON: The only reason to make an incision in someone's brain is to lobotomize them- you go in to remove damaged tissue. Why someone would cut into a healthy brain... They did it over and over. Lao TYEN yeh. [Jesus.] They stripped her limbic system. You know how... you get scared. Or worried, or nervous. And you don't want to be scared or worried or nervous, so you push it to the back of your mind. You try not to think about it. The limbic system is what lets you do that - it's like a filter in your brain that keeps your feelings in check. They took that filter out of River. She feels everything. She can't not.
It's time to wake up.
S: I... brought some medicine. You remember why we went to the hospital. R: Is it time to go to sleep again? S: No, mei mei. It's time to wake up.
• caps courtesy of _jems_
• transcript from twiztv.com
• please don't use the images for graphics.